Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! In honor of Thanksgiving, I said last week that I would write about a bat from Turkey. I did some research and I found a very cute bat! It’s called the Bechstein’s Bat. The Bechstein’s Bat is hard to find. It likes to roost in holes that are made by woodpeckers or in rock and tree crevices. The bat lives all over Europe, including Turkey. It is mostly found in the United Kingdom though. The Bechstein’s Bat is a very sneaky little bat. The sound that it makes for echolocation is very hard for its prey and predators to hear. It’s also hard for humans to detect it with their radar equipment. Being so quiet is a big advantage for the bat because it is able to sneak up on its prey without being detected. This helps the bat find yummy moths, spiders, flies, mosquitoes and beetles. The bat eats so much that it is close to the top of the forest food chain. This bat is small. He is only 4.3 – 5.3 cm (1.68 – 2.09 in) long and weighs 7 – 14 g (.25 – .49 oz). Its wingspan is 25 – 35 cm (9.84 – 13.78 in). Its back is light brown and its stomach is pale grey to white. The Bechstein’s bat’s ears are small compared to some other bats’, but they are still pretty big. I think they are adorable. If you want to read […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I thought we should all take this time to learn another interesting Vampire Bat fact. I know that a lot of people are scared of vampire bats. I just want you all to know that these bats are actually very friendly and sweet with each other. Sure, they have a rather strange diet, but that is just our opinion. They probably think our diet is weird. That doesn’t make them scary. So, in an effort to show everyone just how wonderful all bats are, including the poor misunderstood vampire bat, here is this week’s interesting bat fact: Vampire bats share blood! As you all know, they drink blood. What I didn’t know is that if one of their roost-mates is hungry, a vampire bat will share blood with it! A scientist at the University of Maryland has been studying vampire bats for many years. He says that the bats will share regurgitated blood with their roost-mates. Apparently, a vampire bat will approach a friend who is hungry and offer it food. The scientists have noticed that bats who share the most blood will be offered the most if they are hungry later. The scientist says that it is evidence that bats are generous and their behavior might ensure that they will get fed if they are hungry one time. If you want to read the article that I read, you can find it here. So, I think we should all learn […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Today’s blog is dedicated to the people of Paris, France. I hope the injured are able to recover quickly and that the people who lost loved ones find peace. I am told that Paris is a wonderful city and I hope the people who live there feel safe again soon. Hi everyone! After yesterday’s news, I thought it would be nice to research some nice French bats. I went online and found some really cute ones. One of them is the Lesser mouse-eared bat (Myotis blythii). This adorable little bat has soft brown fur that is lighter on its underside and head. They have a very long tail. Lesser mouse-eared bats like to roost in caves and buildings. They love roosting in church steeples and bell towers. One thing that makes the Lesser mouse-eared bat so special is how it can hover to catch its prey. It will hover in tightening circles until it finds its prey. Then it hovers behind the insect and plucks it off blades of grass. You can read more about the Lesser mouse-eared bat here. Another bat that lives in France is the European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis). This is obviously Freda’s favorite French bat. She thinks they are cousins. They might be, but they definitely have a lot of differences. The European free-tailed bat is one of the largest bats in Europe. They have large forward-pointing ears that curl inward at the edges and they have the cutest long wrinkled muzzle. I think they look […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I hope you enjoyed your Halloween and got lots and lots of candy! The bats all enjoyed their Halloween bugs. I read an interesting article about WNS. Some of you might have already seen this news, but for those of you who didn’t, scientists have found the fungus that causes WNS in Chinese bats. Until now, scientists had only found the fungus in Europe and North America. As you all know, it is killing bats here in North America. Bats in Europe seem to have developed some sort of immunity to it. The fungus, P. destructans, doesn’t seem to be killing Chinese bats either. The scientists think that the fungus has been in Europe and China for tens of thousands of years. During that time, bats that live in those areas have developed some immunity to the fungus. The problem is that our bats don’t have tens of thousands of years to develop immunity. Hopefully the researchers will be able to figure out how the foreign bats are immune to the fungus. If they can figure that out, maybe, just maybe, they’ll be able to find a cure. I hope they do because our bats need help. You can read all about it here.